Japan eases borders for tourists but worries about foreign ‘bad manners’ triggering coronavirus
- Relaxing strict Covid measures took months of pressure from travel trade because government feared public backlash if infections spiked
- There are concerns visitors who don’t wear masks or use hand sanitiser could spread infections again; against backdrop of economic woes
Japan’s easing of a two-year ban on foreign tourists seeks to balance the enormous economic importance of tourism with concerns that travellers would trigger a Covid outbreak, insiders say.
The decision means Japan will allow in a limited number of foreign tourists on package tours starting June 10. Last week a few “test tours”, mainly of overseas travel agents, started to arrive.
Relaxing some of the world’s strictest pandemic border measures required months of pressure from travel and tourism executives, three insiders said, describing both the government’s fears of public backlash if infections spiked and the industry’s concerns of an economic wipeout.
“There were worries that foreign tourists would include a lot of people with bad manners – people who don’t wear masks or don’t use hand sanitiser and that infections could spread again,” said one tourism company executive, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The industry pressed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner as well as government ministries, he said, but initially found them unresponsive.